The evaluation of SPUR - a novel patient-reported outcome measure of medication adherence in patients diagnosed with chronic conditions

Medicines are the most widely used intervention in healthcare. Despite this, many patients do not take their medicines as prescribed, referred to as medication nonadherence. Globally, non-adherence is estimated to cost health systems >£300Bn annually. Costs are typically associated with adverse drug reactions, treatment failure, and increasing healthcare utilisation, such as hospital admissions. As global life expectancy continues to rise, so do diagnoses of chronic conditions and subsequently, prescribing and long-term reliance on medicines. Several methods to measure adherence have been developed. Yet to date, no known model does so holistically, nor provides contextual information about patient behaviour that could help to develop interventions which reduce adherence-related risks. The aim of this research was to evaluate the validity of a novel patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) of medication adherence, SPUR, and determine its application in clinical practice to identify adherence-related risks, such as hospital admissions.